Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID set the pace in the opening practice session of race week at Le Mans, Brendon Hartley reeling off a 3m27.742s to go just over a tenth faster than the sister No. 7 car.
Unsurprisingly, the pace at the head of the field improved from the Test Day almost immediately. The best time on Sunday was a 3m29.504s from the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari. It was bettered in the opening minutes by Jose Maria Lopez in the No. 7 Toyota, who set a 3m28.290s.
By the end of the session, 13 cars set times under the 3m30s mark, though there is still almost certainly plenty of pace to come as the week progresses.
The fastest of the other teams in the Hypercar class was Cadillac Racing, which managed to get its No. 2 V-Series. R in the top three with a 3m27.939s. It was the only other car in the session to set a time under 3m28s: an encouraging start for the GM brand.
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The top five was completed by the No. 75 and No. 6 Porsche 963s, both within half a second of the pace-setting Toyota’s time.
A pleasant surprise early on was the pace of the two Peugeot 9X8s, which sat second and third in the times for a decent chunk of the three-hour session. Both cars though hit trouble and spent extended time in the garage. The No. 93 spent 45 minutes in its pit box, while the No. 94 spent 80 minutes stationary being worked on after an off out on the circuit.
In the end the two French-flagged cars ended up sixth and seventh, notably ahead of both Ferrari 499Ps. But it was not the start to the week the team had hoped for.
FP1 was incident-packed as a whole, with two red flags, one of which was lengthy, midway through the session for a big incident at the exit of the Esses. Casper Stevenson in the D’Station Racing Aston Martin lost the rear of the Vantage, veering off track nose-first into the Armco on driver’s left just before Tetre Rouge. He ended up stationary in the middle of the track. While multiple cars were able to avoid him, Steven Thomas (standing in for the injured John Farano) was left with nowhere to go, hitting the side of the Vantage at high speed in the Tower Motorsports ORECA.
Thankfully, both drivers were OK after the impact. Unfortunately, though, both cars were damaged extensively, and RACER understands that both teams will require a new chassis to continue in the event. The clean-up job was lengthy, the barrier repair work required lasting over half an hour.
The second red flag was for an off on the Tetre Rouge from Nico Varrone in the Corvette Racing C8.R. The Argentinian hit the kerb and lost control of the car, rear-ending the tires with a few minutes remaining and bringing the session to an early end.
In the other classes, JOTA’s No. 28 ORECA, which set the pace on Test Day, was again the fastest in LMP2. Pietro Fittipaldi set the quickest lap for the British team, with a lap time of 3m34.579s.
This was a tenth faster than the COOL Racing ORECA that ended up second, and fastest of the LMP2 Pro/Am runners.
In GTE, Danish team GMB Motorsport found real pace after a quiet Test Day. Marco Sorensen set 3m55.020s, 0.3s faster than the newly-liveried GR Racing Porsche 911 RSR, which ended up second after topping the times in the closing stages. TF Sport’s No.72 Aston Martin made it two Vantages in the top three.
In addition to the D’Station Aston Martin and the Corvette Racing C8.R, two other cars in the class hit trouble. The JMW Motorsport Ferrari spent most of the session in the garage after Louis Prette went nose-first into the barriers at the Ford Chicane, and the Walkenhorst Ferrari went backwards at high speed into the barriers on the run-up to the Dunlop Bridge.
For Hendrick Motorsports’ Garage 56 entry, the pace was head-turning; a 3m49.475s put the Camaro ZL1 six seconds quicker than the GTE Am cars. RACER understands that Garage 56 team has been told by the ACO that it can gun for times all week and is not being instructed to run to the target lap time of 3m54, as was originally intended.
Next up is qualifying, which decides who will progress to Hyperpole, at 19:00 local time.